“ I want to restore to the people of the State complete control of their 
State government; to afford the voters of the State the freest expression 
of their choice of candidates for public office; and I believe that my pending 
State-wide direct Primary bill embraces an honest, a sincere, a comprehen¬ 
sive, and a practical plan for these accomplishments.”— Extract from Governor 
Sulzer’s message vetoing Senator Blauvelt’s bill amending the Election Law. 


GOVERNOR SULZER’S MESSAGE FAVORING 
DIRECT STATE-WIDE PRIMARIES. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE SULZER 
BILL FOR STATE-WIDE DIRECT PRIMARIES. 

EXPLANATION OF THE FEATURES OF THE 
SULZER STATE-WIDE PRIMARY BILL. 

VETO OF SENATOR BLAUVELT’S BILL AMENDING 
THE ELECTION LAW. 

GOVERNOR SULZER’S SPEECH TO THE CHAIR¬ 
MEN OF THE DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COM¬ 
MITTEES SUPPORTING THE SULZER BILL FOR 
STATE-WIDE DIRECT PRIMARIES. 

Va/ ^ V G\. i t , , , 







^ 4 


. OF D. 
p 15 1913 


/ 




9 


» 


9 # 

• *, P 


.f 





3 


GOVERNOR SULZER’S MESSAGE FOR A REFORM OF 
THE ELECTION LAWS, FOR A SIMPLER AND 
SHORTER BALLOT AND FOR DIRECT STATE-WIDE 
PRIMARIES. 


Albany, April 10, 1913. 

To the Legislature: 

As the legislative session is drawing to a close, I deem it my 
duty, in the interest of the general welfare, to again call your 
attention to the insistent demand of the people throughout the 
State for a reform of the election laws; for a more simple and 
shorter ballot; and for direct State-wide primaries. 

To that end I renew my recommendations that the Legislature 
take up these very important questions without further delay and 
pass bills ere the adjournment for their accomplishment. 

The Democratic party in convention assembled, at Syracuse, 
adopted the following plank as a part of its platform: 

We favor the amendment of existing election laws 
wherever experience has demonstrated that changes are 
necessary to improve their effective operation and to decrease 
the expense of elections; and in particular to facilitate the 
making of independent nominations. 

We condemn the Republican Assembly of 1912 for 
refusing to join the Democratic Senate in passing the 
Loomis bill which reduced the expense of elections by de¬ 
creasing the number of days of registration and lowering 
the salaries of election officials. 

The Democratic party was the first to recognize the de¬ 
mand for a State-wide direct primary and so declared in the 
Rochester platform of 1910 and the Democratic Legislature 
of 1911 despite Republican opposition enacted the first State¬ 
wide direct primary law in the history of the State. We 
again declare in favor of the principle of the direct primary 
and we pledge our Legislature to adopt such amendments to 
the existing laws as will simplify and perfect the direct 
primary system.” 



The Progressive Party in its convention, last fall, adopted the 
following plank as a part of its platform: 

We pledge the enactment of a real direct primary law 
applicable to every elective office and a Presidential pref¬ 
erence primary law/’ 

The Kepuhlican Party in its convention, last year, adopted the 
following plank as a part of its platform: 

We favor the short ballot, surrounding primary elec¬ 
tions with the same safeguards as regular elections, the 
direct election of party committees, the direct nomination of 
party candidates in congressional, senatorial. Assembly, 
county and municipal subdivisions, and the direct election of 
delegates to State conventions, with the right of party 
electors to directly express their preference for nominations 
for State offices if they so desire. 

We further advocate that the cumbersome method of 
nomination of independent candidates for offices by petition 
be simplified so that those who are dissatisfied with the 
nominations made by regular political parties may have the 
names of their candidates placed upon the ballot in a less 
burdensome way.” 

It is thus apparent that all the political parties in our State 
are irrevocably committed to these salutary reforms. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact all the members of the Legislature are bound by these 
pledges, and will be false to their promises unless legislation is 
enacted at this session for electoral reform and a State-wide 
direct primary. ^ 

/In my message to the Legislature at the beginning of the year 
I said: We are pledged to the principle of direct primary 

laws State-wide in their scope and character, and I urge the 
adoption of such amendments as will simplify the procedure and 
make complete and more effective the direct primary system of 
the State.” 

Believing as I do in these reforms I renew my recommenda¬ 
tions, and unhesitatingly affirm that nothing will gratify me more 
than to be able to attach my signature to bills that will give the 
people of the State the best election laws and the most complete 

rect primary law possessed by any State in the Union. 



'It is my opinion that the people of the State are in favor of 
nominating all candidates for elective office from Governor and 


5 


United States Senator down to constable. The primary law 
should be as simple, and as honest, and as practicable, as legisla¬ 
tion can make it. Every safeguard now thrown around the 
ballot box on election day should be invoked to protect the ballot 
box on primary election day. 

The electors can rely on me to favor these changes in our 
election laws as I shall every other reform to restore the govern¬ 
ment of the people to the people. I have always claimed that 
the people can be trusted to conduct their government, and were 
just as capable of nominating candidates for office as they were 
of electing candidates to office. In a government such as ours we 
must rely on the people, and we should legislate in their interest 
and to promote their welfare. 

I know that the people of this commonwealth, in common with 
the people of our sister States, believe that if they are qualified 
to choose by their votes on election day governors, judges, senators 
and congressmen, they are also competent on primary day to 
nominate these same officials, not some of these officials, but all 
of them, and I therefore urge the speedy enactment of legislation 
that will make every candidate for public office the choice of the 
people. 

If it is wise to trust the people with the power to nominate 
some q)ublic officers, I am sure it is wise to trust them with the 
power to nominate all public officers. I believe it is as wise to 
trust them to nominate a governor as to trust them to nominate 
a constable, and as wise to trust them to nominate a judge of the 
court of appeals as to trust them to nominate a justice of the 
peace. 

The people have been given this power in many other states and 
they have used it to bring about greatly improved conditions. 
Let the Empire State put itself in line with the foremost states 
in all the Union, by favoring nominations by the people, for 
thus only can we secure a government of the people. 

AYhile the main defect in our primary law is that we have 
not made it applicable to state officers yet there are other defects 
that we should remedy. Primary ballots in some districts in 
Uew York City have been from eleven to fourteen feet in length, 
and a law placing before an elector on primary day such a ballot 
as this deserves the ridicule it has received. As long as Assem¬ 
bly districts are made the unit of representation such ballots 
will be possible and I recommend that election districts instead 
of Assembly districts shall be made the unit of representation. 


6 


I also recommend the abolition of all committee designations; 
the prohibition of the party emblem on primary ballots; the re¬ 
moval of the party circle from the primary ballots; the prohibi¬ 
tion of the use of party funds at primary elections; and the estab¬ 
lishment of a state committee membership of one hundred and 
fifty — or one for each Assembly district. 

I further recommend reducing the number of names required 
on a nominating certificate; the authorization of registration on 
primary day; and a proper limitation of the amount that may be 
expended by any candidate for the purpose of securing a no'iiiina- 
tion. The law should also prescribe the expenses which may be 
lawfully incurred in connection with candidacies for nomination, 
and should insure the publicity of all expenses. 

The enactment of these regulations into law, will, I am con¬ 
fident, permit the voters of the state to construct political organi¬ 
zations from the bottom upwards, instead of permitting them to 
be constructed from the top downwards. The power which con¬ 
trols organizations is usually the power that controls nominations, 
and the power which controls nominations is the power which 
controls public officials. 

, How vitally important, therefore, that this power should be 
wielded by the many and not. by the few. The changes which I 
advocate in our primary law are in harmony with the spirit of 
the times and of democratic institutions. They aim to restore 
to the people rights and privileges which have been usurped by 
the few, for the benefit of invisible interests w'hich aim to con¬ 
trol governmental officials, to pass laws, to prevent the passage 
of other laws, and to violate laws with impunity. To these invisible 
powers I am now, always have been, and always will be opposed. 

Ho government can be free that does not allow all its citizens 
to participate in the formation and execution of its laws. Every 
other government is a form of despotism. The political history 
of recent years illustrates the truth that under the forms of 
democratic government popular control may be destroyed, and 
corrupt inffuences, through political organization, establish a 
veritable despotism. 

That popular government, under God, shall be resurrected and 
made actual, the Legislature of this State is urged to carry for¬ 
ward the work of reforming our election and primary laws, so 
that in matters political every man shall count for one and no man 
shall count for more than one. 


WILLIAM SULZEK. 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE SULZER BILL 
FOR STATE-WIDE DIRECT PRIMARIES. 


Albany, N. Y., A'pril 18, 1913. 

To the Honorable Tl’m. Sulzer, Governor: 

We, the Tindersigiied, members of the Committee appointed on 
April 11th by your Excellency, and charged by you with the two¬ 
fold duty of drafting a State-wide direct primary measure in 
accord with the State platforms of all parties, and your special 
message to the Legislature of April 10, 1913, and to take such 
steps as seemed advisable tending to secure the enactment of such 
bill, have the honor to present this, our unanimous report: 

1. We present herewith complete amendments to the primary 
law and suggest that no bill receive your sanction that does not 
provide (a) that election districts shall be made the unit of repre¬ 
sentation for all purposes; (b) that the convention system of 
nomination be abolished; (c) that the party emblem and circle 
be eliminated from primary ballots and that the use of party funds 
at primary elections be prohibited. 

2. Careful consideration of conditions existing in all parts of 
the State convinces us that the great majority of electors, irre¬ 
spective of party, are in complete sympathy* with your position 
in this important matter and believe that your announced inten¬ 
tion to (a) present the bill to the Legislature at the earliest prac¬ 
ticable moment; (b) follow it with an emergency message urging 
its adoption and (c) in the event of its non-passage to forthwith 
appeal to the people and convene the Legislature, in extraordinary 
session for special consideration of this measure will result in its 
enactment. 

EDWIN M. CROCKER, Chairman, 

J. VAN NESS PHILIP, 
LAWRENCE B. DUNHAM, 
FRANCIS A. WILLARD, Secretary, 
CHARLES N. BULGER, 

DANIEL J. DUGAN, 

M. Z. HAVEN, 

A. J. ELIAS, 

DANIEL D. FRISBIE. 



8 


EXPLANATION OF THE FEATURES OF THE SULZER 
STATE-WIDE PRIMARY BILL. 


1. All party candidates for public offices, except town, village 
and school district offices, to be nominated directly by the en¬ 
rolled party voters at the official primary. 

2. A State committee of 150 members, one from each Assembly 
listrict, and a county committee for each county, one member 
from each election district, to be elected directly by the enrolled 
party voters at the official primary. All other committees to con¬ 
sist of the members of the State committee and the members of 
the county committee or committees residing in the political sub¬ 
division. 

3. All designations of party candidates for public office and 
party position to be by petition only. 

4. Every designating petition to contain the appointment of a 
committee for filling vacancies on the primary ballot. 

5. Candidates to be arranged on the ballot under the title of 
the office. Order of arrangement to be determined in each group 
by lot by the commissioners of election in the presence of the 
candidates or their representatives. All emblems and straight 
voting circles on the primary ballot abolished. Names of candi¬ 
dates to be numbei»ed from one upward to the last name on the 
ballot. Voter to indicate his choice by making a separate mark 
before the name of each candidate. 

6. The number of enrolled party voters required to sign a desig¬ 
nating petition is fixed at one per cent, of the party vote for Gov¬ 
ernor at the last preceding election, except that for State-wide 
offices the number need not exceed 3,000 enrolled voters of which 
fifty shall be from each of twenty counties. The number in the 
city of New York need not exceed 1,000 enrolled party voters, 
with other maximum limits for smaller subdivisions. 

7. The primary district is made identical with the election dis¬ 
trict and primaries of all parties to be held at the same polling 
place, conducted by the election officers. 

8. The chairman of a county committee may be elected from 
outside the committee membership. 



9 


9. Each party to have a party council to frame a platform; 
such council to consist in gubernatorial years of the party candi¬ 
dates for office to be voted for by the State at large, candidates 
for the Senate and Assembly and members of the State commit¬ 
tee; in other years to consist of the members of the State com¬ 
mittee, candidates for Assembly and representatives of the party 
in the State Senate. 

10. A special enrollment each year in the month of June for 
a new party created by the vote at the last preceding general elec¬ 
tion. 

11. The time for filing independent nominations subsequent 
to the filing of party nominations increased from five days to 
fourteen days. The number of signers of an independent certifi¬ 
cate of nomination reduced to conform substantially to the num¬ 
ber of signers of a party designation. 

12. Election of United States senator by the people provided 
for in accordance with the recent constitutional amendment. 
Nominations to be made at official primary in the same manner as 
for the office of Governor. 

13. Registration days in the country reduced from four to two 
and registration in the country by affidavit required where voter 
does not appear personally. 

14. Boards of election in counties having less than one hun¬ 
dred and twenty thousand inhabitants reduced from four mem¬ 
bers to two. 

16. The use of party funds at primary election prohibited. 

16. A separate bill is to be drafted amending the penal law 
limiting the amount that may be expended by a candidate for 
the purpose of seeking a nomination to public office or election 
to a party position. 

17. Delegates and alternates from the State at large and from 
congressional districts to the national convention to be chosen by 
the direct vote of enrolled party voters at an official primary; 
but not more than four delegates and four alternates at large 
to be elected. 

By the Committee, 

EDWIN M. CROCKER, 

Chairman, 


Dated, Albany, N. Y., April 18, 1913. 


10 


VETO OF SENATOR BLAUVELT’S BILL AMENDING 
THE ELECTION LAW. 


State of New York — Executive Chamber. 

Albany, April 24, 1913. 

To the Senate: 

I herewith return, without my approval. Senate bill Printed 
No. 2110, entitled ‘^An act to amend the Election Law, generally.’’ 

This bill claims to be the fulfillment of the pledges of the last 
Democratic, Republican and Progressive State platforms, and 
purports to change and perfect the existing Primary and Election 
Laws, in establishing genuine. State-wide direct primaries for all 
candidates to he elected by the people. 

As a matter of fact, the bill is a fraud, and does nothing of the 
kind. At best, it is a miserable makeshift. 

Let me state that I have given careful examination and much 
consideration to the amendments contained in this bill. It is my 
conclusion, as I believe it must be the conviction of any fair- 
minded man who will examine this measure, that the slight 
amendments made to the existing laws are mere patchwork, chang¬ 
ing only a few minor details that clearly demonstrate a design to 
tinker with a grave subject, by way of subterfuge, in order to 
deceive the voters. 

These amendments will accomplish no honest reform, and 
would read like an amusing farce, if it were not for the fact that 
the members of the present Legislature who sanctioned its enact¬ 
ment, are irrevocably pledged and bound by the highest moral 
and political obligations to pass an honest and a genuine State¬ 
wide direct primary law. 

Hence, in the light of all we know concerning this measure, it 
must be branded as enacted in bad faith; wholly fraudulent; 
and a glaring breach of the pledged faith of every member of 
the Legislature. There is no escape from this conclusion. 

This measure is a fraud on the electors of the State; and is 
in no sense a real and an honest State-wide direct primary law; 
nor can it be conceivably said, from any point of view, to fulfill 
the pledges in the State platform of the respective political par¬ 
ties in our commonwealth. 



11 


Among the many shortcomings of the bill, it may be pointed 
out that it does not extend the system of direct nominations in 
any way. The reduction of the stipulated number of signatures 
for independent nominations to a minimum of five per cent, of the 
votes for Governor in a political unit, would actually compel an 
independent candidate, in many districts in New York City, for 
example, to obtain a greater number of signatures to his petition 
than are necessary under the present law. 

The bill does not abolish the organization column, on the 
primary ballot, and the use of the party emblem. The suggested 
change in the style of ballot is not a change at all in the system 
of committee representation, and necessarily the primary ballots, 
particularly in New York City, will continue to reach the ridicu¬ 
lous and scandalous length of fourteen or more feet. 

It leaves in the present law, the provision for State conven¬ 
tions; the designation of candidates by political committees ; the 
use of the party emblem by the organization committees; and 
the possibility of voting the whole ticket by placing a cross in 
the circle. These are impediments to genuine reform in our 
election and primary laws, which the citizens have the right to 
expect their representatives in the present Legislature to eradicate 
and to abolish. 

The amendments contained in the bill concerning the reduction 
of the number of registration days in the country from four to 
two: the limitation of the number of election commissioners in a 
county to two; and the reduction of the number of signers, in some 
cases to independent petitions, are satisfactory, as far as they go, 
but these possible good features are all contained in the State-wide 
direct primary bill, which I caused to be prepared, and to be 
introduced, for the consideration of the present Legislature, after 
I became thoroughly convinced that the present members of the 
Senate and the Assembly did not intend to redeem, in this matter, 
their pledges to the people. 

As I have frequently said before, and which I desire now to 
reiterate with the greatest possible sincerity and earnestness, 
every member of the present Legislature is bound by the highest 
moral and political obligations to vote for a genuine, honest, and 

State-wide ’’ direct primary law, that will permit the voters of 
the State to construct and control political organizations from the 
bottom upward, instead of permitting them to be constructed and 
controlled, as at present, from the top downward. It must be 


12 


done, or we will stand convicted of deliberately getting office under 
false pretences. 

The record will show that for years I have been a consistent 
advocate of genuine direct primaries, and I firmly believe that the 
enactment into law of a State-wide direct primary bill, along 
the lines of the measure I have caused to be prepared and to be 
introduced in the Legislature, will accomplish what the voters 
desire, and reflect greater credit on the members of the present 
Legislature than the passage of any other act that can, or will 
be presented, for the consideration of its members this* year. 
There should be no adjournment until this is done. Let us be 
honest with the voters and keep our pledges to the people. At 
all events, as the Governor, I shall, and if the Legislature does 
not, I want the voters to know the reason why. 

When we consider the waste, the extravagance, the inefficiency, 
and the corruption, which have recently been brought to light in 
connection with the administration of public affiairs in our State, 
and which are the cause of painful humiliation to every thoughtful 
and patriotic citizen, all due, in no small degree, to the fact that 
in recent years political power has been gradually slipping away 
from the people who should always control it and wield it, there 
can be no doubt as to the necessity of this legislation and as to 
our duty in this all important matter. 

Every intelligent citizen is aware that those who subvert the 
government to their personal advantage have found their greatest 
opportunities to do so through the adroit and skillful manipulation 
of our system of party caucuses and political conventions. We 
have been given leadership dishonorable to the various political 
parties of the State, and we have been given party tickets which 
reflect this dishonorable leadership in disgraceful secret alliances 
between big business interests and crooked and corrupt politics. 
It must cease or our free institutions are doomed. 

The honest citizens of our State for years have demanded an 
end to these shameful conditions. They now insist on primary 
reform, thorough-going, radical and direct and complete, and I 
would be unfaithful to these salutary demands of the people of this 
State, and to the pledges of the political platforms of my own 
party if I were to give my official approval to this bill, which 
while it might do something to improve our primary law, goes 
such a short distance in the right direction, that it would seem 
like giving a stone to the voters when the people are asking for 
bread. 


13 


If we fail to make our system of direct primaries apply to 
State officers, we have left off our work of primary reform where 
the people expected us to begin. The wide-spread demand for 
direct primaries in our State found its origin mainly in the dis¬ 
satisfaction arising from the failure of our State conventions to 
faithfully reffect the sentiments of the party voters. Every 
student of our recent politically history knows this, and no one 
knows it better than I do. 

In withholding executive approval of this bill I am prompted 
by the hope and the confidence that the Legislature, ere it 
adjourns, will sincerely redeem the promises regarding State-wide 
direct primaries of the political platforms of the Democratic, the 
Republican and the Progressive parties. In my judgment this 
must be done. The Democratic platform as adopted in the last 
two State conventions are explicit declarations for a State^wide ’’ 
direct primary. There can be no State-wide ’’ direct primary 
that does not apply to all State officers. Who can successfully 
deny this ? 

Any proposition less than this begs the whole question, and 
violates the pledged faith of all the parties to every voter in the 
State. I am now, and always have been and always will be in 
favor of carrying out our platform pledges to the letter. The 
best way to strengthen a political party is to keep the faith. I 
want to restore to the people of the State the complete control of 
their State government; to afford the voters of the State the 
freest expression of their choice of candidates for public office; 
and I believe that my pending State-wide ” direct primary bill 
embraces an honest, a sincere, a comprehensive, and a practical 
plan for these accomplishments. 

Besides, I consider that my State-wide ’’ direct primary bill 
is an absolutely nonpartisan measure, which faithfully reproduces, 
and will carry into practice, the pledges of the three great political 
parties concerned in the last State election; and that, on its merits, 
it will meet the approval and .have the support and the backing 
of a large majority of all the citizens of this State. I am con¬ 
vinced that every member of this Legislature is solemnly bound 
in honor by the highest moral and political obligations to vote for 
its enactment; and those who fail to do so will be forced to yield 
to public opinion and be replaced by others who will vote to give 
the State an efficient and just State-wide direct primary law, that 
will embrace every office, from Governor down to constable. 


14 


Is it necessary for me, or any other man^ to say that in con¬ 
tinuing the delegate system in nominating State officers, electors 
are not allowed to nominate directly ? In continuing the delegate 
system, we are therefore ignoring and repudiating our platform 
pledges and betraying the people with false pretenses. I shall 
not be a party to such repudiation. I shall not endorse such a 
betrayal of the people. 'No political party can make me a politi¬ 
cal hyprocrite. 

This bill is disapproved. 

(Signed) WILLIAM SUL2^ER. 


15 


LET US KEEP THE FAITH. 


Speech of Governor Sulzer to the Chairmen of the Democratic 
County Committees, Many Members of Same, and Several 
Hundred Others, Assembled in the Executive Chamber, 
Albany, N. Y., April 26, 1913, at Noon, to Discuss the State- 
Wide Direct Primary Bill Now Before the Legislature. 


Governor Sulzer said: 

Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to greet you, to-day, 
in the Executive Chamber of the State of New York. 

It is very good and very patriotic of you to come here — to 
leave your affairs and your business — and to give your time 
and your attention to the cause of the people, whom you in a very 
large degree so truly represent. 

We are met here, to-day, to do what we can to keep the 
faith, and to redeem our pledges. We promised the people in the 
last campaign that if we were successful, we would give them — 
among other things — a State-wide direct primary law. 

I ran for the Governorship on the platform of the Syracuse 
Convention. I helped to write that platform, and after I was 
nominated I stood on it throughout the campaign — squarely and 
honestly. 

^^At the request of my party I made a campaign through the 
State. They tell me I spoke to more people during the contest 
than any other Democratic candidate in all the history of the 
State. I told the people that if I were elected I would do every¬ 
thing in my power to carry out the pledges of my party as 
enunciated in the Syracuse platform. Many doubted the sincerity 
of these campaign speeches ; but there was one man who never 
doubted their sincerity, and that is the man who is now Governor 
of the State. (Applause.) 

I meant what I said then, as I mean what I say now. No 
man, no faction, no party, can make me a political hypocrite. 




16 


(Applause.) When I cannot be honest in politics, I shall get out 
of politics. I believe honesty in politics will succeed, just the 
same as I believe honesty in business will succeed. If anyone 
doubts that, all he has to do is to think of what has been accom¬ 
plished in this coimtry during the past quarter of a century by 
the men who have dared to be true, and have been honest in 
politics. When I make a promise to the people I keep it, or I 
frankly tell the people why I cannot keep it. When my party 
makes a promise to the people, I want my party to keep the 
promise, or I want the people to know the reason why. 

Let us keep the faith. That is where I stand, and I will 
stand there to the end. If any Democrat is against me in my 
determination to keep Democratic faith, I must of necessity be 
against him. (Applause.) 

It is all very simple to me. If any Democrat in this State 
is against the Democratic State platform that man is no true 
Democrat; and as the Democratic Governor of the State I shall 
do everything in my power to drive that recreant Democrat out of 
the Democratic party. (Applause and Cries of Good.) 

That is all there is to this matter. We must keep faith with 
the voters. Let no man misunderstand me. I believe in calling 
a spade a spade. I believe in telling the truth. I am making 
war on no true Democrat. I want to treat every Democrat fair 
and square and just and right. I am a Democrat through and 
through, but I do not want any so-called Democrat to make war 
on me. If any Democrat in the State tries to make war on me I 
shall fight him to the end — and if necessary summon the party 
leaders here to decide between that man and me to determine who 
is honest and who is right. (Applause.) 

There are fifty-one County Chairmen assembled here out of 
sixty-two all told in the State. You are the representatives in 
your respective counties of the Democratic Party. You are its 
bone and sinew — its life and blood. You have been put in your 
positions by the Democratic voters in your counties. You have 
got to be true to these Democratic voters or you have got to reckon 
with me for your recreancy. Do not be deceived. There is no 
man in this State who knows public opinion better than I do, or 


17 


who trusts it more. Whatever I am; whatever I have been; what¬ 
ever I hope to be; I owe to the people. (Applause.) 

Yes, you know; and you know that the electors of the State 
of Yew York, regardless of party affiliations, are in favor of State¬ 
wide direct primaries. (Applause.) If that question were sub¬ 
mitted to the people in any assembly district of this State it 
would be carried overwhelmingly for State-wide direct primaries. 

There has never been a time in all the history of the Republic 
when the people could get some of the power the fathers failed 
to give them in the formative days of our country — when some 
thought the people incapable of self-government — that the people 
did not seize the power and feel grateful to those who gave it and 
trusted them. (Applause.) 

Is there anyone here who doubts it ? Is there any man in the 
Republic who doubts it ? If so I point tO' the adoption of every 
amendment to the Federal Constitution from the days of Jefferson 
down. That is the evidence. That is the proof. Every student 
of our history knows it. So I say that if we will give the people 
this power to nominate; they will take it gladly; they will not 
abuse it; but on the contrary exercise it rightly and properly. 
The only men who fear to do that are the men who do not trust 
the people. (Applause.) 

The Democratic party now has a great opportunity. I want 
it to make good and keep faith with the voters. Is that too much 
for the Democratic Governor to ask of the Democratic Party ? 
All I want is to have the party in which I was born, and in which 
I am going to die — the party of my father, and the party of my 
hopes, and my ambitions, and my aspirations — to be true to 
itself; true to its promises; and true to its principles. (Ap¬ 
plause.) 

What Democrat would have me be false ? If there be such, 
let him come forward now, or forever hold his peace. The Gov¬ 
ernor here at this desk is the visible government. His adminis¬ 
tration is open and above board. Against great difficulties and 
many obstacles this Governor is trying to do his duty to all as 
God gives him the light to see the right. What Democrat wants 
him to fail ? In his struggle for the right, for honesty, for civic 
righteousness, and for better things he appeals to the electorate 


18 


of the State of New York to come forward now and help restore 
the government to the people. In this battle for the right; in this 
fight for the people; in this struggle to have the Democratic Party 
keep its pledges the Governor summons the Democrats of the State 
to come to the support of the man they elected Governor. (Ap¬ 
plause.) So far as he is concerned there will be no step back¬ 
ward. There shall be no compromise.'" There is no middle 
ground. (Applause.) 

Can I say more ? Can any human being whose heartTs true 
and whose head is steady do more than I am doing? Does any 
man who ever occupied this office deserve help more than I do? 

“ Pest assured that in this struggle those who help me 
will win my gratitude; that those who oppose me will 
merit condemnation. Every Democratic chairman, of every 
Democratic Committee, in every county of the State, must now 
decide whether or not he is going to be with me or going to he 
against me in trying to carry out our platform pledges and to 
make good our political promises. If he is with me I will be with 
him. If he is against me, mark well what I say, I shall be against 
him. He must either be a party to driving me out of public life, 
or I must be a party to driving him out of the Democratic party. 
(Applause.) 

Let me tell you something. I have been an advocate of State¬ 
wide direct primaries ever since the movement began. As a 
member of Congress, for many years, I know exactly how this 
reform began to restore the government to the people. For a long 
time we Democrats were in a hopeless minority in the Congress 
of the United States, and every time we would get beaten by 
the majority, we would retire to the cloak room to nurse our 
defeats, and to take counsel as to what we could do to prevent 
similar disasters. We finally determined that the only way we 
could ever get control of the Congress was through the agency of 
direct primaries. In every southern State since the reconstruc¬ 
tion days they have had State-wide direct primaries; and every 
southern State has continued to be Democratic. So we thought 
it would be a good thing to extend this system of letting the 
people nominate as well as elect. Finally we extended it as to 
some of the inter-mountain States; and then to some of the 

/ 


19 


Pacific Coast States; and then to the Middle-West and the East; 
so that to-day in these United States, thirty-nine out of the forty- 
eight States have State-wide primary laws — many of them 
much more radical than this bill of ours; many of them far more 
progressive ; many of them much more in advance. In nearly 
every one of these States the Democratic party seldom won an 
election until direct primary laws were written upon the statute 
books. (Applause.) 

So if any one tells you that State-wide direct primaries is not 
a good thing for the Democratic party, you deny it, and point to 
what the Democrats in sister States have done through the agency 
of this beneficent law. 

' 'f Ho man fears direct primaries, except a man whose char¬ 
acter, and whose ability, and whose mentality, and whose 
democracy cannot bear the searchlight of publicity. (Applause.) 
Ho man fears direct primaries, unless he wants to be the creature 
of the invisible government rather than be the servant of tl^ 
-people. (Applause.) 

Our State^wide direct primary bill is a good measure. I 
am for it. My friends are for it. The Democratic party is 
for it. On this issue there is no middle ground. The Democrats 
of the State must be with their Democratic Governor, or they 
have got to be against the Democratic party. Let every Democrat 
decide. All my life I have fought for the right; for the truth; 
for justice and progress and humanity. I shall not change now. 
(Applause.) 

Mdiat Democrat in our State is going to be false to the plat¬ 
form, to be a traitor to the party, and to desert me in the per¬ 
formance of my duty ? In this cause for direct primaries I have 
no fear of the ultimate result. The people will win. I say 
deliberately to you Democrats that you have got to line up your 
representatives in the Legislature to pass this honest, this just, 
this fair, this nonpartisan State-wide direct primary bill, to keep 
our pledges, or I will line up the people against you, and your 
representatives, for your failure to be true to our platform. 
(Applause.) 

Let no one be in doubt. If you think I will not fight, you have 
another think coming. (Laughter and applause.) If you imagine 


20 


that I do not know the rules of the game, remember, I have been 
in the game practically all my life. (Laughter.) They beat 
Governor Hughes, but 1 am determined they shall not beat 
Governor Sulzer. (Laughter and applause.) 

Let me tell you that if the friends of this reform cannot 
write this State-wide direct primary law upon the statute books 
of our State before the 31st day of next December we do not 
know the power behind this desk. (Applause.) If we fail in 
this fight it will be due to the fact that we do not realize the 
powers and the agencies of the Executive. All of that power, 
all that is honest, and all of those agencies, will be used from 
now henceforward to defeat and to crush the Democrats who 
would make the Democratic party of the State of Hew York 
the laughing stock of the people; who would make the Demo¬ 
cratic party of the State of Hew York dishonor its name and 
become a political hypocrite. (Applause.) 

This afternoon at two o’clock the joint committees of the 
Legislature will give a hearing on our State-wide direct primary 
bill. This measure has been very carefully prepared by some 
of the ablest minds in our State, and some of the foremost 
leaders of all political parties in our commonwealth. It meets 
with the approval of the people, and substantially carries out the 
promises of the platforms adopted by all parties in the last cam¬ 
paign. Every Progressive, every Republican, and every Demo¬ 
crat in the Legislature is bound in honor to vote for this measure. 

I ask you in the name of our party, in the name of honesty, 
in the name of truth, in the name of progress, to attend this 
meeting, and by your voice and your presence, by every effort 
known to the cause of good government, to do all in your power 
to get this State-wide direct primary bill written upon the statute 
books before this Legislature adjourns. (Applause.) 

Let us do all in our power to make the representatives 
elected by the people keep the faith; keep their pledges; and 
do what the people want. Let us do all in our power to compel 
the men who were elected upon these platform promises, who 
pledged their words to the people — when they asked for their 
suffrages — to carry them out — who got into office on these plat¬ 
forms and by these pledges, to make them good now, or never 
go back home to tell the reason why they failed. (Applause.) 


21 


That is about all I think I ought to say, and perhaps I have 
said too much. But never mind — whatever I have said, I hope 
will be pondered over by the men who are anxious to defeat the 
will of the people, who are trying to violate the faith of the 
party; and who seem determined to break the pledges of 
democracy. 

Let us be true to ourselves. Let us be honest. Let us keep 
the faith. And just so sure as the morning follows the night, 
just so sure will the people of the State bless every man who has 
done his duty in this great cause. (Applause.) 

In conclusion I cannot refrain from saying that this is an 
historic day in the annals of our State. This is a memorable 
scene, seldom, if ever, witnessed in this Executive Chamber. 
Some may criticise me for doing what I am doing. I cannot 
help that. Those who believe in me know I am doing my duty. 
I shall submit patiently to unjust criticism. But I know — 
and no one on earth knows it better — that in the last analysis, 
when the future historian comes to pen the story of this day, 
he will give a large page in our annals to the brave men who 
are assembled here, with determination in their hearts, to see 
to it that the representatives in the Legislature are not false to 
their pledges; not false to their party; and not false to the 
people. ^Great applause.) 









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